Stieg Larsson's "Millenium Series" has had am interesting history of being adapted into the big screen. There were the first Swedish adaptation of the original trilogy, "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo", "The Girl who played with Fire" and "The Girl who kicked the Hornets' Nest". While I haven't seen the Swedish movies, I have read all the books which is why my the feeling of loss that I feel towards Stieg Larsson's untimely death are well placed, especially knowing that there is still more to Lisbeth Salander's story.
Enter David Lagercratz who was tapped to continue on with said story from manuscripts left behind by Larsson. Unfortunately, the writing of "The Girl in the Spiders Web" is not as par to it's predecessors, which is a nice way of saying that it was boring, so my advice is, skip the book and just watch the movie.
Going back on the "history being adapted into the big screen" -Hollywood's attempt at it was with David Fincher's acclaimed take with Ronney Mara and Daniel Craig as Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkovist. While it was well received by critics, it didn't do so well in the box office. Some saying it was because of the it's Christmas time release, that the movie didn't perform so well. It came out in February here in the Philippines, I haven't officially been writing reviews then but I went on saw the movie in the cinema (on our Valentines date no less) and I loved it! It was dark, gritty and just the intensity is just like a pounding in your head.
Which brings us years later to it's (sort of) sequel, I say "sort of" because for so,e reason, they decided to skip on "The Girl Who Played With Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" (which is such a shame because those two would have made for good source material for exciting films) and just decided to jump ahead with "The Girl in the Spider's Web" -even if Rooney Mara ,Daniel Craig and most importantly David Fincher are not leading the film, I still had hopes given that it was "Don't Breathe's" Fede Alvarez who would be directing the film, and leading it, award winning actress Claire Foy.
So, given it's very "colorful" history, do you need to read any of the books before seeing "The Girl in the Spider's Web?" No. The movie is kind enough to let you enjoy the film without having to know the history behind Lisbeth. Although it's a bit dissapointing that they didn't show much of why Lisbeth's father was a psychopath, because he was.
The movie opens with Lisbeth, saving another woman from her womanizing and abusive husband and with her hacking skills, knack for blackmail and a flair for grand entrances you can't help but feel that the guy deserved what he got.
Lisbeth then gets a call to steal a program from the N.S.A. itself and this leads to an exhilarating sequence of events, which sees Lisbeth going up against a ghost from her past.
While the new Salander film may lack the grit and intensity of Fincher's "Dragon Tattoo", Fede Alvarez does a good job at the helm, bringing his visceral style to the film. The weakening of a heartbeat, the swaying of the camera. Everything is calculated to make you feel as if you are in Lisbeth's shoes.
And in this case, they aren't a pair of shoes you'd want to be in. Caught in a spider-Web (pun intended) of danger and deceit. Lisbeth is running against time to stop an unspeakable danger from being released into the world and to save the life of an innocent boy.
The film has a bit of an exciting "James Bond" feel to it and was definitely more exciting than the last Bond movie. Lisbeth is definitely an interesting character to follow. She operates outside of the law, is a wicked hacker and her "screw you" attitude and penchant for black clothes and junk food is definitely refreshing from your typical action heroes.
The film is a lot better than the book. Unfortunately David Lagercrantz is no Stieg Larsson.
Its en exciting (motorcycle) ride and you'd be cheering for our unlikely heroine all the way.
7/10 "The Girl in the Spider's Web" is in cinemas Nov.21.
